Clay Regazzoni death

Very sad news indeed. I have a very big collection of photos of Clay. He always looked so thoughtful out of the car. A true gentleman i believe!!

RIP Clay

 

Very sad, I admired him greatly and is the sort of character that makes fans out of us.

 

Very, very sad. With his looks and swagger, he personified the F1 racer of the 70s. RIP.

 

Doesn't he still hold the 'Ring lap record for an F1 car? T2, I think...

 

very sad news.

condoleances to his family.

 

RIP Clay........

 

I was there too but I was just a kid and didn't know what was going on. I sat in a few of the cars before the race (they would NEVER let you do that these days!) but I have no memory of seeing Clay or maybe....even sitting in HIS car? Two things I remember about that race, getting sick from the exhaust fumes and getting a sunburn.

 

RIP

 

Very sad news indeed. Sympathetic person he seemed to be. Great driving spirit he had. These are from last year. Also some from his F1 racing time.
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RIP dear Clay. You will never be forgotten, a real gentleman.

 

I met him twice, once at the Geneva car exhibition and once in the Ferrari Factory, very nice gentleman, really.

And after that, I send him some pictures to sign..... send all my pictures back signed, dated them from when they were taken, and enclosed some more pictures from him ....

He was one of the most friendly drivers I met, and,
believe it or not, I'm crying....

I'll miss you Clay, you were a GREAT man, Adieu.

 

I was there as well, sitting in the grandstand that was up on the freeway ramp overlooking the hairpin; from where I was, I couldn't see the accident, but I could hear it, as Clay's car actually went by below us.

I'm not sure Zunino's Brabham really limited Clay's options; when a brake pedal unexpectedly falls off in a heavy braking zone, I don't think he could even have spun the car. The story as I heard it at the time was that he intentionally sideswiped the Brabham to scrub off some speed; very quick thinking! There was a tire wall in front of the concrete but it obviously wasn't thick enough; while leaving the circuit later you could see that the impact had actually moved the concrete, and that Clay was lucky just to be alive.

R.I.P. Clay. You were a good "soldier" for the Scuderia, and a great helper to others who wanted to drive after paralysis.

 

One thing I don't understand: I thought the A1 was a divided motorway, including the area where the accident happened. Did one of the vehicles cross the median?

 

I followed F1 loosely as a child, but it was ultimately Clay's performance at the British Grand Prix in 1979 that got me hooked: All of a sudden there was a Swiss compatriote leading a GP! I couldn't believe my eyes. Soon thereafter I was at my first GP in Hockenheim where I got my only chance to see him drive. Williams dominated that GP and ended up with an easy 1-2 victory for Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni.
Sadly it wasn't much later that I had to witness on live TV from Long Beach his F1 career ending crash. The helicopter shots were horrifying.

Unfortunately the world of F1 and Clay split up. Media lost interest in him and he became a bit of a loner who didn't miss a chance to berate the modern F1 and its drivers. Whereas his compatriot Marc Surer (who had much less success in F1) managed to stay in the spotlight to this day.

PS: I read a surprising comment in Roger Benoit's ulogy for Clay: He stated that Rega lived most of the time in the US in recent years. Anybody knows where?
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It didn't help that Long Beach had little run off areas and as a street circuit is all but concrete. It didn't help that another car was parked in the run off area, but quite frankly the ultimate blame is on Ensign and Teddy Yip for putting a car together that simply looses its brake pedal.
But in a sense Clay knew what he was getting himself into when going to Ensign, they were the absolute backmarkers and bottom feeders at the time.

But Clay was never afraid of taking risks, which is why he continued racing as a paraplegic in the Paris-Dakar. The man had gutts.

 

R.I.P. Clay.

 

You'll be missed. R.I.P Clay

 

Very, very sad news..... RIP Mr. Ragazzoni, you will be missed...

 

RIP

 

The first time I saw Clay Regazzoni was in F2 in the early 60s when he was driving one of the Tecnos from the Pederzani brothers. His style was quite aggressive and erratic on the track, but fast enough for him to become European champion: he was well above the rest of the field in F2 in these days.

When he raced in F1 for Ferrari, his driving was much more composed and his style quite polished.
He was reputed to have recommended Lauda to Ferrari, having partnered him for a year at BRM. To be honest Lauda's record until then was almost inexistant and there was not much to plead in his favour.
When Lauda became de Montezemolo's favourite at the Scuderia and drew all the talents around him (at bit like Schumacher) Regga accepted it and carried on helping him: a real team player.

His career spiraled downwards when Ferrari relinquished him (which was a great injustice in my book), and he moved from team to team. Frank Williams is another one who owns Regga a lot. At a time when the Saudi sponsors were becoming impatient from the lack of success, Clay won the British GP and put Williams in the winners circle. To thank him, Williams let him go...

It's a tragedy that Regga had to finish at Ensign in an under-funded team. It must have been hard to swallow then, but he never lost his enthusiam for racing. We know the rest...

 

A good man with tremendous heart and strength. In this sense alone, a hero.
Blessings for him, his family and friends.

 

People in Switzerland are now wondering whether the accident wasn't caused by a heart attack. After all it is hard to believe that a guy who drove much more dangerous routes and cars would loose it in a situation like this.